Saturday, April 14, 2018

Congressman Peter Welch and Sen. Bernie Sanders at a press conference in January 2018 at Burlington International Airport

Vermont's three-member congressional delegation faulted President Donald Trump on Saturday for launching air strikes against Syria without congressional approval or a clear strategy.

The United States, France and Britain fired more than 100 missiles at Syrian chemical weapons facilities late Friday, a week after forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad allegedly used such weapons against his own people.

In written statements issued following Friday's air strikes, Vermont's congressional delegates said that Assad's use of chemical weapons merited a response from the international community.

"But it is Congress' responsibility to declare war," Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said. "Threatening the use of military force by tweet, and firing off missiles without a coherent policy or clear legal authority, raises obvious dangers and constitutional concerns and risks drawing us into a wider war."

Two days after President Donald Trump promoted an every-country-for-itself approach in a speech at the United Nations, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called for international collaboration.

Sanders, who studiously avoided discussing foreign policy during his presidential campaign, chose a high profile and historically significant venue to address the topic Thursday. He made his remarks during same event at which Winston Churchill gave his famous Iron Curtain speech — at the John Findley Green Foundation lecture at Westminster College in Missouri.

Widely considered a potential presidential candidate in 2020, Sanders has cemented his role as a foil to Trump; last week, he grabbed headlines after unveiling his Medicare-for-all health care proposal.

“The goal is not for the United States to dominate the world. Nor, on the other hand, is our goal to withdraw from the international community and shirk our responsibilities under the banner of ‘America first,’” Sanders told an audience of students and faculty. “Our goal should be global engagement based on partnership, rather than dominance.”

Friday, April 7, 2017

Congressman Peter Welch during a 2013 trip to the Middle East and East Asia that brought him to the Turkish-Syrian border.

Vermont’s congressional delegation expressed adamancy Friday that President Donald Trump seek approval from Congress to intervene further in Syria. The delegation’s three members appeared less certain of how they would vote if Trump did, in fact, come to them with such a request.

“Only Congress has the power to make war,” U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said in an interview Friday morning. “From my perspective, both the president and the Congress are failing to meet their constitutional obligation to get an authorization from Congress before they use military force.”

Neither Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) nor Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) immediately responded to requests for interviews. But in a written statement issued Friday morning, Sanders said, “As the Constitution requires, the president must come to Congress to authorize any further use of force against the Assad regime.” In his own statement, Leahy said, “The president is now required to give Congress notification under the War Powers Act.”

Both senators stopped short of criticizing Trump for authorizing air strikes Thursday.

Vermont’s delegation expressed greater ambivalence about how Congress should respond to a potential request for authorization from the president.

Thursday, January 26, 2017

CNN on Wednesday night aired an interview with one of the two Syrian refugee families that have arrived in Rutland. The segment aired just hours after reports surfaced that President Donald Trump plans to stop refugees from Syria from entering the U.S. via an executive order.

Hazar Mansour, a French teacher, said on the program "Anderson Cooper 360°" that she, her husband and their two small children are happy to be in Vermont. They fled Damascus during a civil war in Syria that, according to the United Nations, has killed more than 400,000 people. They made it to Turkey and then went through two years of background checks before arriving in Rutland two days before Trump's inauguration, Mansour said.

"We were worried about ourselves, worried about our children," Mansour said. "We want to live in peace. It's better than living in the war situation we were in."
"I like Vermont and the people of Vermont," said her husband, Hassam Alhallak, an accountant.

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Major General Steven Cray announces a deployment to the Middle East. Behind him, from left, are Col. Patrick Guinee, governor-elect Phil Scott and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.).

A few hundred members of the Vermont Air National Guard will deploy overseas in the coming weeks on an open-ended mission under the command responsible for Middle East combat operations.

The "short notice" deployment of members of the 158th Fighter Wing will likely last a "few months," Major General Steven Cray said Tuesday. The airmen will report to U.S. Central Command — which is responsible for the Middle East, Northern Africa and Central Asia — and is overseeing the fight against the Islamic State, among other initiatives.

The mission will "bring the fight to our enemies," Cray said.

Vermont officials were recently notified a deploy order could come before Christmas. Confirmation came Monday night, Cray said, and the deployment will happen sometime in the next few weeks.

Monday, March 21, 2016

A year from now, a contingent of Vermont business owners could be headed to Cuba to connect with its newly opened economy, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said Monday by phone from the island nation they were visiting with President Barack Obama.

Leahy and Welch were among 30 members of Congress who joined Obama on the historic visit — the first time a U.S. president has visited Cuba since Vermonter Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

Seven Days File

Congressman Peter Welch (D-Vt.)

Both Leahy and Welch have been to Cuba before — Leahy seven times and Welch twice, they said in a conference call with Vermont media. They are scheduled to return to the United States on Tuesday.

“The fact that the two presidents are meeting is extremely important,” Leahy said, of Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro, who met for a press conference Tuesday afternoon and a state dinner Tuesday night.

Friday, December 11, 2015

A gun used in the Paris terrorist attacks that killed 130 people has been reported linked to a company that operates in Vermont.

The Associated Press reported Friday that an M92 semiautomatic pistol fired in the attacks had been exported from Serbia to Century International Arms, based in Delray Beach, Fla. That company has long maintained a large facility in Georgia, Vt. The AP did not report that the weapon specifically came from Vermont, and said how it got back to Europe was not known.

“We have received an unconfirmed report that a pistol that was legally imported into the United States and legally sold to a licensed, domestic firearms dealer more than two years ago may have been recovered from the scene of the Paris shootings,” Toensing said, according to VPR. “We are unable to confirm that report, but are assisting authorities with their investigation into this matter.”

As Seven Days has previously reported, Century International Arms has maintained a low-profile presence in Vermont for decades. The company sells a number of assault rifles that news investigations over the years have linked to Mexican drug lords, the Nicaraguan Contras and other controversial organizations.

In 2013, Seven Days reported:

But Century’s global reach extends well beyond Vermont. Its online catalogue features a dizzying array of pistols, rifles and shooting accessories, offered for sale to law enforcement and the public. They include the M16, M60, RPK and numerous variants of the iconic Russian Kalashnikov. Century’s C93 semiautomatic rifle — featured on Ted Nugent’s July 2011 “Spirit of the Wild” TV show on the Outdoor Channel — comes equipped with two 40-round magazines and a bayonet “while supplies last,” the catalog reads.

In front of a sculpture with granite jigsaw pieces spelling out “Democracy” on Burlington’s Main Street, a group of activists began a counteroffensive Thursday evening against calls to stop Syrian refugees from entering the United States.

Rev. Debbie Ingram, executive director of Vermont Interfaith Action, credited Gov. Peter Shumlin for taking the “courageous and compassionate” stance that Vermont should welcome refugees from the war-torn country. “Also,” she continued, “we have come to speak out against those in Vermont who would not applaud and support Governor Shumlin’s decision."

Since he launched his bid for the presidency last May, Sen. Bernie Sanders has been dogged by persistent questions about his identification as a democratic socialist. Speaking Thursday afternoon at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the independent from Vermont sought to put those questions to rest.

"Let me take this opportunity to define for you, simply and straightforwardly, what democratic socialism means to me," he told a supportive audience of students in the university’s ornate Gaston Hall. "It means building on what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said when he fought for guaranteed economic rights for all Americans. And it builds on what Martin Luther King, Jr., said in 1968 when he stated, and I quote, 'This country has socialism for the rich and rugged individualism for the poor.'"

In a forceful, unapologetic tone, Sanders defended the ideology to which he’s long subscribed as nothing more radical than a desire for economic justice. Abandoning his campaign-trail comparisons to Scandinavian political systems, he instead framed democratic socialism as entirely American.

To drive his point home, Sanders repeatedly invoked Roosevelt’s 1944 State of the Union address, which the candidate described as “one of the most important speeches ever made by a president.” In it, Roosevelt called for a “second bill of rights,” which the 32nd president said should guarantee such basic human necessities as decent pay, food, education and health care.

“‘We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence,’” Sanders quoted FDR as saying. "That was Roosevelt's vision 70 years ago. It is my vision today. It is a vision that we have not yet achieved. And it is time that we did."

Monday, November 16, 2015

Gov. Peter Shumlin at a press conference in South Burlington on Monday

Updated at 3:30 p.m. with additional states.

Gov. Peter Shumlin said Monday that Vermont will welcome refugees from Syria, and he criticized governors who said they wouldn't accept them due to security concerns related to the terrorist attack in Paris.

Shumlin said "seven or eight" Syrian refugees are in the process of relocating to Vermont. "The refugees from Syria are no different than the refugees from anywhere else in the world," Shumlin told reporters. "I would encourage us to do what Vermont has always done ... It’s the spirit of all Vermonters to ensure that when you have folks who are drowning, who are dying in pursuit of freedom, that Vermont does its part."

By Monday afternoon, the governors of 15 states, including New Hampshire and Massachusetts, declared they would seek to either stop accepting or place a moratorium on accepting Syrian refugees, citing security concerns. (The other states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin.)